This invention relates generally to communications systems and, in particular, to systems and methods for controlling authorized intercept of communications within a communications system.
Many countries in which communications networks, such as but not limited to telecommunications networks, operate have communications interception or wiretap laws. Such laws require communications service providers to enable legal entities to intercept specified communications taking place within their jurisdiction.
One constraint on authorized intercept operations is that, in order to maintain the integrity of the intercept operation, legal entities that are conducting intercept operations desire that the identity of intercept targets be maintained secret from all but the legal entities themselves. This means that intercept target identities are desired to be kept secret from the communications systems that are implementing the intercept.
Another constraint on authorized intercept operations is that legal entities are required by law to limit their intercept operations to their respective jurisdictions. For example, a law enforcement agency (LEA) is required to restrict any authorized intercept operations to just the jurisdiction for which it is authorized to conduct such operations. As the population of mobile subscriber products, such as cellular telephones, pagers, mobile radios, and other wireless communications devices, proliferates throughout the world, it is becoming increasingly difficult for LEAs, and the operators of the communications systems whose communications the LEAs are intercepting, to know with certainty whether intercept targets are within their respective jurisdictions.
In the case of satellite-based communications systems, it is particularly challenging for an LEA to know whether a particular intercept target is within its jurisdiction, because the target subscriber could be anywhere in the world, and because communications with such subscriber can be conducted through a network of satellites without going through any land-based telephone office, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN) station or a cellular telephone base station, which heretofore have conveniently provided authorized intercept capability to LEAs.
Accordingly, there is a significant need for systems and methods that can control authorized intercepts within a communications system by maintaining the identity of intercept targets secret from all but the legal entities themselves.
There is also a significant need for systems and methods that can control authorized intercepts within a communications system by limiting the intercept operations of LEAs to their respective jurisdictions.